Improvement in combined time and concussion fuse for



FFICE.

CLIFFORD Anicicor sfr. oLAIRsvILLE, oriio.

IMPROVEMENT'IN COMBINED TIME AND CONCUSSION FUSE FOR`SHELLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 45.128, dated November 22, 1864.

.T0 @ZZ whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, CLIFFORD AR'ICK, of St. Clairsville, in the county of Belmont, in the State of Ohio, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Igniting the. Bursting-Ghage of a Hollow Projectile; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact'del scription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, made a part hereof,

. and the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention relates to that class of improvements `having for their object the ignition of thebursting-eharge of ordnanceshells at any"f desired moment of their fiight, or at the nioment of impact, `as the gunner mayon the v .instant determine.

The invention in the present case relates Imore particularly to certain improvements in the construction and operation of the cres-v cent fuse and the improved crescent fuse secured to me by Letters Patent of the United States, bearing date, respectively, September` tablishment, in the crescent fuse case, of a -hollow tube, for the purpose of fabricatingtlierein any of these forms of concussion or percussion lfuse. -nicating the two ends of an annular or curved These meansl further consist in commufuse by independent lvents to' 'a common magazine, one of. such vents operating on time in the usual way and the other by concussion or percussion. These means further consist in communicating, by analogous means, the air or :tire chamber in the crescent fuse to its magazine by anr independent vent, the final conimunication being produced by concussion or percussion; and, lastly, these means consist in the establishment of a magazine or maga zines on the packing-disk of'the'crescent fuse communicable to the chambers within the fusecase by concussion and percussion.

To enable others skilled in the art iomake and use my invention, I will proceed to de-V lscribe its construction and operation; and, as

, things,

' a h I a l n l I have shown 1n my said former application,

the general arrangement of the crescent fuse,

and as it is more fully described in my said' Letters Patent than Ineed set forth herein, reference thereto for more particular description is` here made. I will describe onlysuch necessary parts thereof as have undergone the necessary modification to adapt them tothe present combination.

Figure 1 is a plan view ofthe inside and bottom of the 'crescentfuse case A, exhibiting an annular enlargement, 1", of the air or fire chamber c, provided for the reception of the vertical tubesin the disk A', asshown in Fig.

2. Fig. 2 is a plan or top 'view-of the packl ing-disk A', used for packing the fuse and clos` ing the air or iire chamber c in the crescentfuse case, exhibiting, among other things, the vertical tubes, whereinIpropose tofabricate a concussion or percussion fuse, as hereinafter morel particularly described. Fig. 3 is a bottom View of said packing-disk A', exhibiting an additional vent, i', to the magazine j Fig. 4 is a vertical section of the crescent-fuse case and packing-disk, its centrall hollow pin, I), and parts B and C, taken in theline :r ai, Figs. 1, 2, and 8, and wherein is shown,

a vertical section of the tube s, the important'feature in mypresent improvement.

The tube sis shown in the drawings in coil nection with the annular cover candy the air or fire chamber-c,- but it is evident that the same arrangement can be made in connection with the annular cover f chamber f, and I havev thereforevnot reproduced it in the drawings. l The tube s is cast with the disk A', and i'is in rigid combination with the annular cover y c. It is, however, given'the same vertical depth of the groove or chamber c, and that portion of it projecting above the cover c is provided with an opening or vent, o, as shown in .Figs 2 and 4. The aperture 'of the tube sis throughand through, including the-disk A', andfpresents itself within thearea of the magazine j, as shown at 1", Figs. 3 and 4, and increases therefrom in diameter upwardly as rapidly as possible. p The conical tube s', adapted at its. buse to t-he aperture of the tube s at i, may be ofplaster-ofparis,as in the case of Splingard; or of cast zinc,as in the case of Snoeck; or it may be a jointed metallictubc, as in the case of some amon gy other and the groove o1 more recent suggestions; and it is among the means contemplated for securing concussion effects herein, as will be more fully hereinafter set forth. 'Ihis conicaltube s is inserted in the tube s at t, in the top of the maga-zine j and it proceeds at a. taper upward until nearly of a length with the tube s, and its aperture s s, Fig. 4, is made correspondingly at a taper. Its walls aregiven the least practicable thickness, so as to admit within it a suitable charge of. ride-powder. It is' of course closed at its upper end. I, however, here allege that in this present arrangement this tube s is not necessary to the contemplated concussion effect, and that an arrangementl of packing only-will be found sufficient. It is evident that the concussion at theimpact would start from its place 'in the tube -s any'unconsumed portion of the composition withwhich it hadybeen packed, so that, especially at a point on impact, the debris would be broken up, whereby the fire would be instantly communicated to the wlolc of it, including the charge in the magazine. 'i`o assist this lat ter operation, after the tube s should be suitably packed, as hereinbcfore indicated, u portion et the composition muy be drilled out tbi; or there may be embedded within the 'u e, leaden bullets, or other analogous weights, to assist at the impact by their superior momentum in breaking up the unconsumed portion Aof the composition, or to cause a perfora- .tien thereof, into which parts of the charge in the magazine j would follow, and,being ignited, would communicate to the remainder, wherebythe desired effect would be obtained. When the tube s is arranged in combination with the cover f and the lgroove'or chamber f, 'it

may be constructed in all respects the'same as described, the necessary modification being with reference only to the subsequent packing of the annular fuse; but When thus arranged I contemplate constructing it of the same depth only of the annular coverf, so that it shall,

when packed, follow this cover and become a part thereof in confining the fuse. By, this arrangement it is evident that the compositioni'n the tube would be ignited when that end ofthe fuse is being comsumcd. Nor do I confine myself to the use of a single magazine, as each vent lmay be readily provided with one of -its own, excepting, however, when the only meansused for igniting the fuse is the windage flame. I do not propose to make such an arrangement in any case.

The process of putting up my improvement is as'follows: When using the conical tube s', it is first inserted in its place in the top of the magazine j, and is made throughout its length to assume a central position in the tube n, forming about it an annularchamber, s. This annular chamber s is then charged and packed according to the formula, substantially, for charging and packing the Splingard fuso, taking care to have the lower strata of such slow-burning composition as to near its base, An. solid conical tube, small lbe unconsumed during the .dight of the projectile, while its upper strata is of such quickburning composition' as almost instantly to uncover a considerable portion of the tube s. W'hen adopting the plan of packing referred to, dispensing with the tube sp', the tube s is packed substantially in the same manner; and when the weights are used they are introduced with the lower strata and packed with it; or it is otherwise charged and packed and drilled, as hereinbefore described. It is evident that a percussion-plunger may be provided and as securely operated as in any other case within fthis tube s; and as these several modifications are but evident differences, I have not reproduced or multiplied the gures in the drawings in order to exhibit them all therein. rThe tube s in 'thepacking-disk A being thus suitably charged, the process of charging the fusecase A is the same in every respect as in the crescent and improved crescent fuse.; and when charged and packed it is combined with the part B, tubular plug C, and central hollow screw-pin, D, as therein.

Theoperution of my invention is as follows:

`The fuse, when ignited by the windageame alone, must necessarily beef that form having the tube u in combination with the cover f; and in that case, when the fuse is burned away from beneath the tube, its composition is ignit-v` ed and the quick-burning strata or" it quickly consumed, and the effect is then the same as in the `case shown in the drawings; but I do not contemplate relying on the windage-iiam'e for ignition in any case, unless in that of spherical shells. The fuse, when ignited by independent means, as in the case of the crescent and improved crescent fuse, has generated or injected into t-he chamber c the flash or dame of a detonating substance in themanner therein described; and in the case of the improved crescent fuse the vent c, as herein also shown at v, under the dotted lines, Fig. l, is in close proximity to the -vent o of the tube s, so the composition in the tube would probably be rst ignitedby ythe :dame from the primer,

and the quick-burning strata of it, consuming rapidly, would escape at the cut and assist in igniting the fuse, so that should the projectile receive the impact before the burning ot the fuse reached its zero, it` would be instantly exploded by concussion in the same manner as in the Splin'gard concussion and other analogous fuse. Should no other ei'ect be sought than the explosion of the shell at the impact,-

the fuse is not cut, a sufficient vent being made in the top of the chamber c to allow the dame from the primer and that escaping from the tube s to escape from the fuse-case without igniting the fuse. In case of ignition by the windage-ame alone, in order to secure concussion eifects, it is only necessary to provide a sufficient length of fuse to allow, when ignited at its greatest distance from the zero,- the desired range to be made before 1t reaches it.'

It is evident that by an increase of diameter (of the fuse-case) or the increased reduction of the fuse-'composition (in the ease herein shown) or by both means, any desirable lengthof fuse may be obtained.

' AIn case a percussion arrangement is mount- 1 ed in the tube s, the vent e would be dispensed with and the walls ofthe tube be more approprately adapted thereto, and given such thick- Y ness and distance from the burning compositionas to protect the fulminate used from its niuence.

' Having described myinvention,what I claim. as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

l. The construction of a soft-metal fuse-case having ran annular chamber 'or groove forthe reception of an annular tical or other independent chamberer tube use.'

on time, cussion.

October 15,. 1864.

time-fuse, and a verfor the receptionof a-eoncussion or percussion 2.' The union, in a single magazine, to an annular fuse, of the two ends of the fuse by independent vents, one operated in the'usual way, f and the otherv by concussion or per- 

